Christmas is commonly perceived as a season which brings good cheer = to everybody

How my Christmas Seaso= n was Ruined

(Or Why you should avoid getting involved in your grandchi= ldren’s homework)

= &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = &nb= sp; = ----S.M.Singru

= &nb= sp; Christmas is universally perceived as a season, which brings good ch= eer to everybody. Well, the last one did not bring me any good cheer, and inste= ad, it brought me some frustration and a feeling of being side-lined.

= &nb= sp; You see, myself and my wife are currently= with our son & his family in Manila, Philippines. When school vacations star= ted for Christmas, the discussion on the breakfast table veered to the topic th= at my granddaughter, Sana, who studies in level 2 = (Year 2) of an international school, had received only a B+ from her Mathematics teacher in her last test. And everyone said that this was a disgrace, what = with almost everyone in the family having been a science student. Then, utterly tactlessly, I said, why, Sana, I even did an M.Sc. in Mathematical Statistics. So she goggled her large, bright eyes at me, and said, “O.K., then why don’t you t= ake my Arithmetic lessons in the vacation, Aaba?= 221; There was a chorus of approval all around, and when my wife pointed to the positive publicity which we were very likely to receive in the community, i= f I gave the coaching, I knew that my goose had been cooked. It was decided tha= t I should give her revision in additions, subtractions, multiplications, divisions, and in clock reading.

= &nb= sp; That night, I slept poorly, but in the morning I cheered myself by telling myself that, after all, I had taught Appropriation Accounts to senior stalwarts of IRAS like R.K.Sinha, and U= sha Mathur in their Railway Staff College days. And= more recently, I had handled the teaching of Capital Budgeting to Saurav Mitra, and Surya Lakshmi Chellapilla at= the N.I.F.M. Compared to this, the task before me should be a cakewalk.

= &nb= sp; And a cakewalk it was, only the cake was very fluffy indeed and I got stuck. During the first few sessions, Sana made= the following comments and contributions which did dampen my morale:-

1. = I can’t follow your handwriting. Where did you learn to write? (And I c= ould not reply: In a government-run Marathi medium school, where they do not tea= ch you the “continuous and running” style of writing in English).<= o:p>

2. = I just can’t read this thing written by you. Your + sign and x sign look same. Why don’t you use a black pen?

3. = I can’t do these sums because the lines drawn by you are not straight. I think you need to use your reading glasses.

4. = Are you sure you know the correct way of doing these sums? Why don’t you = get it verified from daddy & mummy, instead of wasting our time?=

5. = I am quite sure this has not been covered in my class yet. So why bother?

6. = Aaba, the phone is ringing, I think it is my friend Emily calling me, I could tell from the ring, excuse = me (and then she would disappear for the better part of an hour, talking to her friend on phone, and I did not dare to overhear for fear that the conversat= ion would contain a reference to me which may not be very complimentary.)

7. = When I gave her a problem on reading of a clock: a) Why don’t we use digit= al clocks in such problems, they are so simple to read?; b) Why has this clock stopped? c) What time is it in your watch, five O’clock?, my God, it is time for my favour= ite cartoon on the CN channel, I must simply go. Bye, Aaba= , and thanks. =

= &nb= sp; But I did not lose heart, nor did I give up. Instead, I decided that= I shall go through the beautifully illustrated text books, thoroughly master = the pedagogic technique used, and prepare my own questions for Sana on similar lines. Now in the beautiful books which the School had recommend= ed, in the chapters on additions, subtractions, multiplications, and divisions, there were following questions with corresponding colourful and eye-catching pictures:

·<= span style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> = A milkmaid has 10 litres of milk in her can. A c= at sips away 1 litre from the can. How much milk is left in the can?

·<= span style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> = A baby tadpole eats 7 insects in one day. How ma= ny insects will the tadpole eat in 4 days?

·<= span style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> = A famished toad gulps 3 cockroaches in one hour.= How many cockroaches will the toad eat in 5 hours?

·<= span style=3D'font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> = Four robbers take away $ 1000 from a bank, and s= hare the money in equal parts. How much will each one of them get?

= &nb= sp; I got the point. You see, the idea was to make the study of Mathemat= ics fascinating for these poor children who must be finding it drab and cheerle= ss. Examples ought to have hot action and not spiritless settings. Obviously, t= he accent in the modern version of pedagogy was on linking real-life situations with the mathematical processes, so that children could relate t= he abstruse methods with what was happening around. I heaved a sigh of relief. This was not as tough a task as I had imagined. And soon, on similar lines,= I prepared my own questions, though I could not, in all fairness, illustrate = them with colourful pictures. Some examples were

Human body has a ribcage with 24 ribs. On his way home at night, John was mugged by rowdies and they broke four of his ribs. How many r= ibs are left with John.

A centipede has 190 legs. In a fight with another insect, it los= es 20 legs. How many legs does it now have.

Mr. Blockhead has $5000 in his bank account. The bank’s computer is hacked by a crook, and Mr. Blockhead finds only $2000 in h= is balance. How much was stolen from his account?
A milkmaid has 10 litres of milk to which she adds 2 litres of w= ater. How much milk does she now have for selling? If this milk is sold by h= er equally to four customers, how much of water was received by each customer?
Breezy starts for his school riding his motorbike. He has to cro= ss 7 traffic signals to reach his destination. He break= s 3 signals and rushes o= n. How many more signals does he have to break?
When Peter was caught talking on his mobile phone while driving,= by three traffic policemen, they asked for a bribe of $50 for each of the policemen. What is the total amount, which Peter has to pay?
James Bond had $ 1000 in his wallet. A pickpocket stole his purs= e, but Bond chased him and gave a real bloody nose to the thief, who ran away. Bond could retrieve $400 from the pickpocket. How much money did= the pickpocket get?

= Well. to cut a long story short, Sana found the problems very interesting, solved them correctly, and carried the notebook to her class teacher for showing that s= he had not whiled away her time during the vacation. The notebook was duly rea= d by Sana’s class teacher. After a week, Sana brought home a letter written by her school̵= 7;s Principal, which read as follows:-

“Dear Parent,

= &nb= sp; We are constrained to write this letter to you to bring to your noti= ce that a perusal of Sana’s home work done d= uring the recent vacation has brought out some extremely disturbing trends. It wo= uld appear that she is doing her Mathematics at home with the help of examples which are totally unacceptable from the pedagogic angle. In fact, as you can see from the contents of these examples, instead of strengthening her knowl= edge of Mathematics, the examples are very likely to influence her child psychol= ogy in an utterly undesirable fashion. The examples are designed to create viol= ent behavioural propensities in her tender mind by glorifying crime & viole= nce. We took the extraordinary step of showing the averred examples to a consult= ing psychologist. He has given us his firm clinical finding that the examples h= ave been set by a person with a singularly troubled mind, which distinctly bord= ers on the criminal category.

= While we do not know who has set the examples, we strongly recommend that this specific home tuition be terminated forthwith. Purely in order to help your child, we would not mind suggesting the names of tutors who are reliable and competent in this field.

= &nb= sp; = In case the form of tuition adversely noticed by us is continued, pl= ease take notice that this School shall not, in any way, be responsible for the likely hazardous effects on your child’s personality which may manife= st now or at any point in future.”

= &nb= sp; The letter got circulated round the breakfast table. I could feel a definite frostiness in the air and I received furtive and worried glances. = The homework job was quietly and diplomatically withdrawn from me.

= Normally this would be a matter of joy for me. But it was not so. To tell you the truth, I had rather enjoyed constructing those examples, and n= ow I missed this pastime. The vacation had ruined a newfound hobby for me. But I= was certain my ideas would not be overlooked for long. In human history, recognition often eludes great people for long, but never forever. Marx was= not revered during his lifetime. Although reviled in his times, Che Guevara is today a symbol of rebellion and revolution, though not in the science of teaching.